Music: Keeping the ‘art’ in ‘party

Fans reach out to Dr Reniculous Lipz.

Photo: Steven Vigar

If your job is to capture party moments with a camera, when do you get a chance to just hang out and have fun? For Steven Vigar and Garret Clarke, the founders of mobile photo studio Up Against the Wall, the answer was to create an event where cameras and picture-taking are banned. Their first No Photos event was in June last year, and a second is being held at Revolver in Taipei tomorrow.

“We loved the irony of it,” said Vigar, who also contributes to the Taipei Times. “I wanted to have a party — what am I going to do, shoot it? The only way for me to have a good time is to not have to work it.”

Last year’s event took patrons back to basics, with sketchpads and pencils instead of digital technology and flashes. Attendees sketched the bands and each other, with the results clipped on wire and strung from the walls.

The duo hope to create a similar vibe this time, with art being created and displayed on the first floor, bands on the second floor, and a gallery space on the third floor.

Clarke said that having an interactive event “changes the dynamic … you get all these like-minded people together and see what comes of it.”

The lineup comprises Dr Reniculous Lipz and the Scallyunz from Taichung, Taipei-based bands XOXO, a strange and raw electro act with a weird and sexy keyboard player and vocalist and the charmingly named The EverSoFriendlies, and Hsinchu-based indie rock band Windy City 4.

Artist Brendan Dempster will paint a wall mural throughout the night.

Vigar and Clarke want the event to have an urban graffiti feel, and will provide a multitude of media for people to write, draw and paint on.

They encourage patrons to bring art supplies such as markers and paint. There will be prizes for the best artwork, and a booth will be set up outside for T-shirt stenciling.

The event is also a fund-raiser: On the third floor, a gallery will display photos taken by Aboriginal children. The shots are being sold through the Aboriginal Children’s Project, a charity that uses money generated from the sale of art to build a community center in Cingcyuan (清泉), a small Atayal village 90 minutes’ drive east of Hsinchu City (see the Taipei Times on Sept. 27, page 2).